What is Village SOS?

Village SOS is a major new initiative from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) and the BBC, who are searching for six UK villages with a great business idea and six enterprising individuals to act as ‘Village Champions’ and help them achieve their ambitions.

Together they will create a brand new venture that will bring new life and energy to the village with funding of between £100,000 and £400,000 from BIG.

The journey of the six successful villages and their Village Champions will be filmed for a major prime time BBC One series in winter 2010/11 and backed by a BBC Learning campaign.

The feel good series will be presented by Sarah Willingham who grew famed Indian catering chain The Bombay Bicycle Club into a hugely lucrative catering business. You may also recognise her from the BBC series The Restaurant.

Sarah Willingham, Village SOS presenter

Make Your Mark, part of the charity Enterprise Insight, is partnering with the BBC to search for the Village Champions. We want to share our excitement about the value that entrepreneurial people can bring to places, and as the people who run the Enterprising Britain competition on behalf of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform we know more than most what that value can be. So, we’re helping with the selection process and are hoping that lots of enterprising people – from entrepreneurs through to successful project managers and community activists – will apply. The six funded villages will choose a Village Champion who will go and live in that village for a year and get paid £30,000. So if you are looking for a challenge and have always wondered what rural life might be like, why not apply?

What we didn’t want to do was parachute in someone who wanted to take over the project - this is a sustainable project rather than a one-off entertainment piece. So, we’re offering each village a full-time person of their choosing who can help them bring their idea to fruition.

The match-making process will allow villages and village champions to discuss their ideas and find out if they can work together. What’s more 18 villages will get up to £10,000 development budget to work up their business idea, and they can use this time to work with the Village Champion and see for real if the partnership will be successful.

The rural community is definitely in charge and can pick the right person with the right skills for their project. In some cases they might need someone with strong leadership; in others they might prefer marketing skills or a sector skill such as retail.

Harry Rich Chief Executive of Enterprise Insight and Make Your Mark says “When businesses, local people and the public sector work together to beat social or economic challenges and embed a vibrant enterprise culture the result can be stunning. Enterprise will get the UK out of the downturn and we are working hard with government to help places up and down the country to learn from the success of others. Village SOS will unearth those rural areas where an enterprising person can really make a difference.”

Already an enterprising place? Check out our Enterprising Places Network to share your learnings and meet others who are passionate about using enterprise to rejuvenate places.